ATLANTA — John Stones has admitted to going by way of “darkish days” throughout his harm nightmare final season however now match once more he says he is able to struggle for his place at Manchester City.
Stones missed 33 video games with harm final season and was restricted to simply six Premier League begins.
He was sidelined for the ultimate three months of the marketing campaign with a hamstring harm picked up towards Real Madrid in February.
Stones has returned to full health forward of the Membership World Cup. He sat out Metropolis’s first recreation towards Moroccan facet Wydad AC, however is in line to get minutes towards Emirati membership Al Ain in Atlanta on Sunday.
“I am again match, really feel nice and I am excited to get going,” Stones stated.
“It is troublesome once you’re injured.
“There’s been factors the place you assume, you have been giving all this effort, you dedicate all of your life, particularly how I strategy or go about my life, and soccer, I give all the things, on and off the pitch to be right here or be able to play video games and people are the darkish days.”
Stones was a key a part of the Metropolis crew which gained the Champions League in 2023, typically getting into midfield from centre-back.
He was one in every of a variety of Metropolis defenders to undergo accidents final season together with Manuel Akanji and Nathan Aké.
It was made worse for Stones final season that he needed to watch from the sidelines as Metropolis endured their worst season for a decade.
“It’s irritating for me,” he stated.
“I put quite a lot of strain on myself. I discover it very difficult mentally. I’ve had some very low factors previously season and I simply have to come back again and when you come over these issues, you possibly can’t actually see the top of the tunnel once they maintain occurring.
“It is irritating for the crew, for myself, for the supervisor, that you just’re not out there to assist them, and you have to discover one other strategy to be across the crew.”
Stones stated his accidents final season had been doubly irritating as a result of they might not be defined by Metropolis’s medical employees.
He added: “I do not know what the reason being, and we have sat with the medical employees, sports activities science, to try to determine why. Some issues cannot be defined.
“Which is much more testing mentally when there’s probably not a solution. I have been unfortunate with a few of the accidents that I’ve had, they had been very uncommon final season, after chatting with specialists.
“Typically I feel, why has it occurred to me?”
Accidents performed a big half in Metropolis’s poor marketing campaign final season.
It led Guardiola to trace that he would solely embody gamers he may belief to be out there frequently in his squad going ahead.
It put Stones, who has endured harm issues all through his time on the Etihad Stadium, into the highlight. However the 31-year-old, who has a yr left on his contract, insists he’s staying at Metropolis this summer time regardless of hypothesis a couple of return to former membership Everton.
“I am right here, I wish to keep right here, I adore it,” he stated.
“I am right here to assist the crew, and I do not know if what’s been stated or speculated, however I hope that type of shuts it down.”
Talking in Atlanta forward of the sport towards Al Ain, Guardiola suggested players will have to leave through the switch window as a result of he doesn’t wish to work with a bloated squad.
He’s, although, trying ahead to having Stones out there once more after a troublesome season.
“What we would like from John is to be match,” stated the Metropolis boss.
“His beautiful job is taking part in soccer. It is the one factor we would like, the remainder — his expertise — his means, will do it. We will assist him and I am fairly positive he’s going to do the remainder.”